Targeted Podcast True Crime Domestic Violence

1.8 The Road to the Trial

The public pressure was intense surrounding Ronald and Wanda
Maddux’s guilt of murdering their 4-year-old daughter, Melisha
Gibson. Petitions and protests called for the Madduxes to be
put to death. Country music star Hank Snow even wrote TN
Govenor Ray Blanton demanding the death penalty for anyone
convicted of child abuse.

I tend to think of the road to a trial being an ordered and
logical progression from arrest to arraignment to trial. The
road to a trial should be well-marked and driven upon with
caution. But it seems to me as if the typical slow and steady
drive on the road to a trial didn’t happen. It was more like
this case was hijacked by a bunch of teens delivering bootleg
moonshine, careening through the Appalachian mountains with the
acceleration pedal firmly stomped to the floor.